It’s the quality of teaching that has the biggest impact on children’s learning experiences in schools.
So how do we make sure teaching practice is constantly improving? Some would point towards whole-school and subject-specific CPD, others to lessons from academic research.
For me, though, the key is ensuring that every teacher has the opportunity to think and reflect on their own teaching.
So what does this look like? In 1988 Professor Graham Gibbs conceptualised the reflective learning cycle, and this is what I would encourage teachers to use today. It has six stages.
Reflective teaching: a six-stage process
- Description: what happened?
At this stage you are asked to simply describe an incident or situation in detail, while avoiding discussing your thoughts, interpretations and feelings. You are not expected to draw any conclusions, as this will come at a later stage.
Answer these questions: what happened and how? Who was present? What did you do? What did your students do? What did you want to see happen? What were the outcomes?
- Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling?
Next you consider your thoughts and feelings about the lesson or interaction and how they may have impacted upon the outcomes.
Answer these questions: what were you feeling before, during and after the lesson? How did your students feel during the lesson and what might they be thinking and feeling now? You can extend these questions to include the thoughts and feelings of any other adults that may have been present. What are you thinking about the lesson now?
- Evaluation: what was good and bad about the experience?
The first two stages are designed to prepare you for the evaluation stage, in which you take the time to consider what went well and what didn’t work during the lesson. Be as honest as you possibly can about the lesson. Remember that it is equally important for you to evaluate what worked as well as what didn’t work.
Answer these questions: what went well? What didn’t go to plan? What positive contributions did you make? What negative contributions did you make?
- Analysis: what sense can you make of the experience?
Now you need to think more deeply about why things worked or didn’t work well. Up until now you have been concentrating on describing the details of the experience but now you can begin to make sense of what happened during the lesson.
Answer these questions: why did certain elements of the lesson go well? What enabled them to be successful? Why did certain elements not go so well? What have I learned about the different aspects of the lesson? What can help me make sense of the lesson? You may want to draw upon the support of colleagues or academic literature to support your analysis.
- Conclusion: what do you need to improve on?
Then you get the opportunity to make judgements about what happened during the lesson. This is where you take the opportunity to consider all that you have learned from the experience and decide upon the actions that you are going to commit to in order to further improve your teaching in the next lesson.
Answer these questions: what have I learned about my teaching from this lesson? What have I learned about my students? How could I have improved my teaching in this lesson? What could I have done differently? What skills do I need to develop for me to improve my teaching? Who or what can support me in this improvement?
- Action plan: how will you improve?
Finally, decide upon what you would like to do differently in future lessons and the ways in which you are going to commit to change and improve your practice. You will need to consider how you are going to do this and who will support you.
Answer these questions: if I had to teach the same lesson again, what would I do differently? What am I going to do to help me develop the knowledge or skills I need to make these improvements to my practice? How will I ensure that I fully commit to making these changes to my practice?
More teaching and learning:
The strategies
I have found the above process useful, but there are many other professional learning strategies that can enable you to develop reflective practice in a structured way.
Taking part in action research can really encourage teachers to be reflective, and I’d recommend that leaders use the appraisal system to enable teachers to have research questions as their performance management objectives.
Teaching a class of students is an intense activity and there isn’t always the opportunity to reflect deeply when you are in the moment. Often it’s our colleagues who observe our teaching, but I’d encourage all teachers to film themselves, and watch their own lessons back. It’s uncomfortable to begin with, but once you’ve got used to it, it’s a very useful way to reflect upon your actions and view your teaching from the perspective of your students. Why not start with audio transcripts before moving on to filming? Audio can be just as useful.
Your students are also a great resource to lean on. Take every opportunity possible to ensure that your students have the chance to think, reflect and share their understandings. This does not mean that they are given opportunities to judge the quality of your teaching; it means they are given opportunities as often as possible to share and discuss the quality of their learning. Ask them these questions: how do you know when you have learned something? When you find something tricky, what do you do to help yourself? How do you feel when you learn something new?
The last strategy I’d suggest (and I’m just highlighting a few of many) is to record your reflections in a learning journal. Through the process of writing, we are taking the time to synthesise our thinking. Keeping a journal is a fantastic way to record your ongoing reflections and track your learning and the impact of the changes. It’s a really good habit for you to develop in your first year of teaching.
Through this reflective practice, you will develop the skills to continually think and continually learn and grow as a teacher. This will have a powerful impact on your own professional learning and wellbeing and, most importantly, on the learning of the students that you teach.
Dr Kulvarn Atwal is currently executive headteacher of two large primary schools in the London Borough of Redbridge. This is an edited extract from his latest book, The Thinking Teacher, which is available now
